The troubled life of Dorothy Dandridge, the first African-American woman to garner an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress (for CARMEN JONES) is dramatized in this fine made-for-HBO film from director Coolidge (RAMBLING ROSE). Gorgeous Berry shines as Dandridge in a role she seems born to play. Dandridge's close relationship with her manager (Spiner) is examined, as is her affair with director Otto Preminger, along with her first marriage to dancer Harold Nicholas, with whom she gave birth to a mentally disabled daughter. Aside from her ....